Govt happy that Congress is on its side

After the Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement last July, the government and the Congress were not on the same page. It was only after the government amended its position that the party came out in its support. Eight months later, as the government gets ready to resume the dialogue process with Pakistan, it has been comforted by the fact that the party is in its corner on the issue.

At a time when the Opposition has called on the government not to go ahead with the talks, the Congress has supported the initiative. This is significant given the fact that the talks are being held in the backdrop of the Pune blasts. “The government has made it clear that terrorism will be the centrepiece of negotiations. It has also said that it is not resuming composite dialogue,” party spokesperson Manish Tewari said.

Support notwithstanding, the party is exercising a degree of caution in its endorsement of the resumption of negotiations. The caution is on account of its uncertainty over how the decision will pan out. “If talks were being held in an incident-free atmosphere, perhaps the reaction would have been different, but the blast in Pune has cast a shadow,” a CWC member said.

Unlike the reference to Balochistan in the Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement, the decision to resume negotiations with Pakistan has been taken with the knowledge of the Congress leadership. Since the decision was taken before the Pune blast, the view in the party was that this is a fairly safe time to resume dialogue.